STORM DEVASTATES PANHANDLE - static01.nyt.com · munity of Mexico Beach, 100 miles southwest of...

VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,112 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2018

C M Y K Nxxx,2018-10-11,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

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PANAMA CITY, Fla. — Hurri-cane Michael, one of the mostpowerful storms ever to hit thecontinental United States,slammed into the Florida Panhan-dle on Wednesday, unleashing atrail of destruction across 200miles that splintered houses,peeled off roofs and stirred up aterrifying surge of seawater thatsubmerged entire neighborhoodsand sent boats careening downcity streets.

A storm that was initially fore-cast to arrive as a tropical storminstead amped up to furious inten-sity, hitting landfall just after mid-day near the small seaside com-munity of Mexico Beach, 100 milessouthwest of Tallahassee, withwinds topping 155 miles per hour.

Images from there showedswaths of shattered debris wherehouses once stood and structuresinundated up to their rooftops; thestreets of Panama City, fartherwest, were blocked by downedtree limbs and impossible tanglesof power lines. Recreational vehi-cles, trucks and even trains werepushed over, surrounded by newlakes of water.

“Hurricane Michael is the worststorm that the Florida Panhandlehas ever seen,” said Gov. RickScott of Florida, where 375,000people were ordered evacuatedfrom the western part of the state.

The storm was officially classi-fied as a Category 4 — on theverge of Category 5 — but was lat-er downgraded as it continued itsrapid advance up toward Georgiaand the Carolinas, where citiesstill reeling from Hurricane Flor-ence prepared for another on-slaught of rain and wind.

Just about every updateseemed to bring greater grim-ness: closed bridges, more tower-ing waves, suspended emergency

STORM DEVASTATES PANHANDLE

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ERIC THAYER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Hurricane Michael made landfall near Panama City, Fla. on Wednesday. The storm, which hadbeen forecast to be much weaker, grew to Category 4 before it began to roll toward Georgia.

Hurricane Is One ofthe Strongest Everto Strike Florida

This article is by Richard Fausset,Alan Blinder and Patricia Mazzei.

Continued on Page A18

WASHINGTON — For Presi-dent Trump, who has made SaudiArabia the fulcrum of his MiddleEast policy, the possible murder ofa Saudi journalist in Turkey is alooming diplomatic crisis. For Mr.Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kush-ner, it is a personal reckoning.

More than anyone in the Trumpadministration, Mr. Kushner hascultivated Saudi Arabia’s crownprince, Mohammed bin Salman —whose family may have played arole in the disappearance of thejournalist, Jamal Khashoggi — el-evating the prince into a key allyin the Arab world and the WhiteHouse’s primary interlocutor tothe kingdom.

Mr. Kushner championedPrince Mohammed, 33, when theprince was jockeying to be his fa-ther’s heir; had dinner with him inWashington and Riyadh, theSaudi capital; promoted a $110 bil-lion weapons sale to his military;and once even hoped that the fu-ture king would put a Saudi stampof approval on his Israeli-Palestin-ian peace plan.

While the fate of Mr. Khashoggi,a resident of Virginia and a col-umnist for The Washington Post,remains unclear, allegations thathe was killed on the orders of theroyal court have thrown Mr. Kush-ner’s grand bet on Prince Moham-med into doubt.

He may be less the risk-takingreformer the Trump family ea-gerly embraced than a reckless,untested ruler, who critics say hasbeen emboldened by his ties to theTrumps to take heavy-handed ac-tions at home and abroad.

American intelligence agencieshave collected communicationsintercepts of Saudi officials dis-cussing a plan to lure Mr.Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabiafrom his home in Virginia and thendetain him, according to a former

KUSHNER’S WORKCAST INTO DOUBTIN SAUDI MYSTERY

WAGER ON CROWN PRINCE

Son-in-Law of PresidentHas Been Key Liaison

to the Kingdom

This article is by Mark Landler,Edward Wong and Eric Schmitt.

Continued on Page A11

WASHINGTON — A Chineseintelligence official was arrestedin Belgium and extradited to theUnited States to face espionagecharges, Justice Department offi-cials said on Wednesday, a majorescalation of the Trump adminis-tration’s effort to crack down onChinese spying.

The extradition on Tuesday ofthe officer, Yanjun Xu, a deputy di-vision director in China’s main spyagency, the Ministry of State Se-curity, is the first time that a Chi-nese intelligence official has beenbrought to the United States to beprosecuted and tried in opencourt. Law enforcement officialssaid that Mr. Xu tried to steal tradesecrets from companies includingGE Aviation outside Cincinnati, inEvendale, Ohio, one of the world’stop jet engine suppliers for com-mercial and military aircraft.

A 16-page indictment detailswhat appears to be a dramatic in-ternational sting operation to lureMr. Xu to what he believed was ameeting in Belgium to obtain pro-prietary information about jet fanblade designs from a GE Aviationemployee, only to be met by Bel-gian authorities and put on a planeto the United States.

China has for years used spy-craft and cyberattacks to stealAmerican corporate, academicand military information to bol-ster its growing economic powerand political influence. But appre-hending an accused Chinese spy— all others charged by the UnitedStates government are still atlarge — is an extraordinary devel-opment and a sign of the Trumpadministration’s continued crack-down on the Chinese theft of tradesecrets.

The administration on Wednes-day also outlined new restrictionson foreign investment aimed atkeeping China from gaining ac-cess to American companies.

The arrest of Mr. Xu “shows thatfederal law enforcement authori-ties can not only detect and dis-rupt such espionage, but can alsocatch its perpetrators,” BenjaminC. Glassman, the United States at-torney for the Southern District of

Chinese Officer Brought to U.S.On Spy Charge

First Such Extradition— Trade-Secret Case

By KATIE BENNER

Continued on Page A14

Stocks suffered their steepestdrop in eight months on Wednes-day, as rising interest ratesgnawed at investors and as previ-ously high-flying technologyshares tumbled in the face ofgrowing tensions with China.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 3.3 percent, regis-tering its fifth consecutive dailydecline. That’s the longest stringof down days for the S.&P. 500, themarket’s benchmark, since No-vember 2016. The damage contin-

ued on Thursday in Asia, as mar-kets in China, Japan and HongKong fell about 3 percent in morn-ing trading.

The decline signaled a changein mood on Wall Street. Formonths, it had seemed as thoughnothing could spook stock invest-ors in the United States. Growingcorporate profits and surgingshares of technology giants

pushed major benchmarks to astring of record highs.

But concerns about nascent in-flation, rising interest rates andthe potential for the Federal Re-serve to tighten monetary policycame together into a wave of sell-ing Wednesday. In addition, Presi-dent Trump’s policies toward Bei-jing have become a drag on tech-nology companies, which relyheavily on China as a manufactur-ing base. Shares of the companiesthat make components like semi-conductors have been particu-larly hard hit in the recent selling.

Stocks Plummet, Signaling Anxiety on Wall StreetBy MATT PHILLIPS China Tensions and Rise

in Rates Fuel Sell-Off

Continued on Page A16

Dark circles formed like warn-ing signs beneath Yu Fen Wang’seyes as she worked 12-hour grave-yard shifts in a Queens maternitycenter that operated on the mar-gins of legality. Her family saidshe had grown gaunt, could notsleep and told her husband she nolonger wanted to live.

Her employers, however, saidthey needed her to work. And herfamily needed the money. She

earned less than $100 a day, theysaid, working in a private housethat had been converted into acombined nursery and hotel fornewborn babies and their moth-ers.

An open secret in the Flushingcommunity, the center was part ofan underground industry catering

to a demanding clientele: localmothers resting after childbirthand Chinese visitors coming tohave their babies in the UnitedStates, a practice known as “birthtourism.”

On Sept. 21, at 3:40 a.m., thesedangers collided to near-fatal ef-fect when, the police say, Mrs.Wang stabbed three babies sleep-ing in bassinets on the first floor —all girls — and two adults. Shethen turned the knife on her ownneck and wrists.

The victims all survived. But

Fragile Babies, Worn Workers and Costly Care

By LIZ ROBBINSand CHRISTINA GOLDBAUM

Continued on Page A20

Centers Fuel a TraditionWhile Skirting Policy

WASHINGTON — The F.B.I.’sformer top lawyer told congres-sional officials in private testi-mony last week that he had takenseriously a suggestion by the dep-uty attorney general, Rod J.Rosenstein, to secretly tape con-versations with President Trumpbut viewed it as too risky and un-likely to deliver meaningful infor-mation.

F.B.I. officials dismissed theidea within days, according toJames A. Baker, then the bureau’sgeneral counsel, but his testimonyshows that F.B.I. leaders playedout its potential ramifications be-fore rejecting it.

Mr. Baker’s account contradictsMr. Rosenstein’s denial of a NewYork Times article last month thatsaid he suggested recording the

president and discussed recruit-ing cabinet members to invoke the25th Amendment to remove Mr.Trump from office. It also under-mines an assertion provided bythe Justice Department from alaw enforcement official presenton one of the occasions when Mr.

Rosenstein Idea to Tape TrumpSeemed Serious, Lawyer Says

By NICHOLAS FANDOS and ADAM GOLDMAN

Rod J. Rosenstein is said tohave suggested wearing a wire.

WIN McNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page A15

NOT A COINCIDENCE Scientistssay global warming is creatingmore powerful storms. PAGE A18

EARLY HITS Florida towns moreaccustomed to fun and games fillwith dread and danger. PAGE A18

Soaring prices in the Philippines forstaples like rice are alienating Presi-dent Rodrigo Duterte’s political base:the urban poor. Mr. Duterte blamed aconspiracy among rice dealers. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-11

Rice Prices Bedevil Duterte

The fighters withdrew heavy weaponsin Idlib Province in northwest Syria,meeting a deadline brokered by theleaders of Russia and Turkey. PAGE A8

Syrian Rebels Retreat on Time

Nauman Hussain, the operator of thelimousine company, faces a charge ofcriminally negligent homicide after acrash that killed 20 people. PAGE A19

NEW YORK A19-21

Arrest in Deadly Limo Crash

The Justice Department has approvedthe $69 billion acquisition of Aetna, oneof the country’s biggest insurers, by thepharmacy giant CVS Health. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-6

Titans in Health Care to Merge

The Yankees’ failure in the postseasonwas related to their lack of moves in theoff-season, Billy Witz writes. PAGE B7

SPORTSTHURSDAY B7-13

Post-Mortem in the Bronx

Gov. Jerry Brown, a steady hand on theworld’s fifth-largest economy, exits justas a financial downturn looms and thestate faces a housing crisis. PAGE A12

NATIONAL A12-18

California, There He Goes

On any given day, Sarah Jessica Parkermay be found waiting on customers ather new shoe boutique. PAGE D1

THURSDAY STYLES D1-10

Saleswoman and the City

The actress says that she, not a shadowyLutz Ebersdorf, plays an 82-year-oldmale psychiatrist in a new film. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-10

Tilda Swinton’s Confession

Gail Collins PAGE A25

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A24-25

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Today, rain and thunderstorms,warm, humid, high 76. Tonight, peri-odic rain, low 61. Tomorrow, clouds,then some sunshine, cooler, high 62.Weather map appears on Page B10.

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